There is a moment early in Kenneth Branagh’s intricately constructed adaptation of Agatha Christie’s classic whodunnit when Hercule Poirot (Branagh) stands on the deck of a ship as it leaves Istanbul. Poirot is captured center frame: The deck, the railing, the adjacent cabin and the sea itself are balanced perfectly around him. The shot is…

It’s funny what language can do, the unintended irony behind words and concepts and colors that were likely never part of any authorial intent. But, then again, maybe they were. That’s the inexhaustible fertility of art; it transcends, whether it wants it or not, intentions. That’s the case with Spanish, still sprouting in a place…

One of the most attractive and thrilling aspects of Tsugumi Ohba’s manga and Tetsuro Araki’s anime adaptation of Death Note, is that the persistent and ever-twisting mind games played against a stylish and neo-noir backdrop always seem to build on the one preceding it until it reaches unfathomable heights. Though there have been live-action adaptations…

In the late 1990s, Egyptian born Mohammed Atta, whom it is believed was one of the pilots of the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center, is reported to have established Islamist contact and formed a terrorist cell while a student in Hamburg, Germany. This fact has alerted the intelligence community in Hamburg…

Wes Anderson’s filmmaking fingerprints are distinctive, to say the least. His delicate touch is visible in every frame of his carefully constructed pictures, as if he’s built each cinematic world entirely with his own two hands. It’s impressive, but occasionally the result is too mechanically quirky for its own good. And it often feels like…

Throughout his career, Lars Von Trier has made a name for himself as one of this generation of filmmakers’ premiere provocateurs. However, there is some debate as to whether or not that’s all he is with an equal amount of people seeing him as a shameless shock merchant as those who believe him to be…